“Gold” Bournia in the tournament A.Me.A. of Egypt

The international appearances for Greek table tennis at the 2023 PWD tournaments started in the best way.

Evanthia-Irini Bournia won the gold medal in the category of women 1-2 (athletes in a wheelchair) at the Para TT open of Egypt, which took place on the three days 25-27/02 in the city of Giza.

The tournament of the international federation (ITTF) was of the Fa20 level and the young Kalamatian, who comes from the great distinction of the bronze medal in the World Championship A.Me.A. 2022, in November in Spain (Class 1), confirmed her role as 1st favourite. With a consistently good competitive face and under the instructions of the coach of Eleftheria Daundakis, she reached the gold medal undefeated and added it to that of the individual in the ITTF Fa20 Greek Para Open (also categories 1-2), which took place last fall in Kefalonia. The tournament also had doubles competitions, but our 16-year-old champion did not take part there.

In the unified women’s classes 1-2 category, 2 groups were initially formed. Bournia (No. 3 in the latest Class 1 World Rankings) was in charge in the 1st and on Saturday emerged as easy winners with a 3-0 set win over Egypt’s Seima Eljabriti (11-2, 11-5, 11-4) and with the same score of the also Egyptian Ola Soliman (12-10, 11-4, 11-2).

In the semifinals on Sunday, she met another athlete from the host country, Fatma Hussein. She was superior in this match as well and won 3-0 sets (11-1, 11-6, 11-3). In the final Bournia faced the also undefeated until that time Mariam Almirisl from Saudi Arabia (number 8 in the world). He continued with another very remarkable appearance and reached the victory and the gold medal with a 3-0 set (11-8, 11-8, 11-5).